Here are ideas President Obama could accomplish immediately in spite of massive deficits.
Health care. Apply existing anti-trust laws to prescription medications. Americans couldn’t be charged more than 10 percent above an average of prices in other first world countries. Secondly, promote more low cost neighborhood health clinics to keep people out of emergency rooms. Require medical insurance policies to be in plain English instead of 40 page documents written by teams of lawyers to promote comparison shopping between companies.
Social Security and Medicare. Appoint a bipartisan committee and agree to accept their plan.
Congress. Convince House Speaker Pelosi not to consider divisive measures. Focus on bipartisan solutions.
Energy. Commit the resources to fund a Manhattan Project for Energy to leapfrog technologies for clean burning cars and cleaner coal plants here and in the third world. Break the logjam for building nuclear plants and refineries.
Stock Market. Set a four year moratorium on raising capital gains taxes and corporate income taxes to boost the stock market.
The Bailout. Take the same $750 billion to bailout those who helped create the mess and who profited hugely and offer each homeowner a $50,000 voucher to pay off their mortgage. Their banks would get to cash the voucher only by lowering the principal balance a similar amount while writing a new 30 year fixed rate mortgage. For nonhomeowners it becomes a down payment. This instantly solves the liquidity crisis and boosts housing prices.
There’s more but I’ve reached my word limit.
Scott Dittrich